Two of the best

BLAIR CONKLIN

Conklin, 18, of Laguna Beach drew the attention of the skimboarding world when he won the micro-grom division of the 2006 Animal World Championships at 11, though his fascination with the ocean began earlier. He spent hours studying the ocean at 1 and throwing rocks into it to test the water's physics at 3.

Now he's the No. 2-ranked skimboarder on the United Skim Tour. He took third in The VIC contest last year in Laguna Beach.

He won the West Coast Championships in 2008 and placed second in the East Coast Championships that year. In his rookie year on the United Skim Tour, in 2011, he came in third.

SAM STINNETT

Stinnett, 20, is the No. 1-ranked skimboarder in the world.

The Laguna Beach resident won the United Skim Tour in 2011 and 2012. He won The VIC contest at Laguna's Aliso Beach both years and the Cabo Clasico in Mexico in 2012. In 2007, his rookie year, he took first place in the United Skim Tour.

He won the 2013 Sununga World Cup in Brazil, a stop on the tour.

If you go

The VIC skimboarding contest this weekend, presented by Victoria Skimboards, is in its 37th year.

Contest director Tex Haines, owner and founder of Victoria Skimboards, said that parking goes fast at the beach and that spectators should arrive early.

On Saturday, the heats featuring the youngest amateurs, such as 8 and under and 9-11, will go first. The oldest, such as 40 and up, will go last.

On Sunday, the order will be reversed, with the youngest going last.

The professional skimboarders will skim whenever the waves are best, with the pro finals likely starting about 11 a.m. Sunday.

Haines said skimboarding is particularly thrilling to watch because, "It's surfing done almost in an arena right in front of you."

When The VIC skimboarding contest hits Laguna Beach this weekend, it will be returning to where modern skimboarding has its roots.

The VIC, presented by Victoria Skimboards, started in Laguna Beach in 1976 as the first known skimboarding contest. About half of the top skimboarders – the ones on skimboarding's world tour – call Laguna Beach home and were groomed on local waves, according to the United Skim Tour.

For them, competing at Aliso Beach in South Laguna on Saturday and Sunday will be just like every other weekend when they sprint down the sand toward oncoming waves, jump onto bodyboard-size skimboards and skim across the water into or across a wave, sometimes performing tricks. Except this time they're being judged.

Laguna's love affair with skimboarding goes back to at least 1929. Photos from that year show early Laguna Beach lifeguards skimming along the sand on pieces of wood. But in the intervening decades, the sport has evolved, just like Laguna Beach, whose Bohemian past has largely given way to posh art galleries and sky-high property values.

Thirty or 40 years ago, skimboarding was more countercultural in Laguna than it is now, according to the Conklin family, longtime Laguna locals. Blair Conklin, 18, is the No. 2-ranked skimboarder, and his family is deeply involved in the sport.

The international skimboarders who come to Laguna Beach – the skimboarding equivalent to surfing North Shore of Oahu – understand how special Laguna is.

"You've got some of the best waves, or some of the most consistent," said Afonso Leme, who has been staying with the Conklins for several weeks and will compete at The VIC. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

BUILDING AN IMAGE

"It's not the rebel sport as much anymore," Corinne Conklin, Blair's mother, said one afternoon in the family's Coast Highway home. She fished for the right word, not sure "rebel" quite captures it. Outcast, maybe?

Her husband, Carey Conklin, who skimboarded in the 1970s, waded in. "Now we have a much higher-bred individual," he said. "If you want to compete, you can't be partying all night."

That's a big concern for Conklin as he gazes out his wall-size living-room window onto the shimmering ocean just south of Aliso Beach. "As a parent, I want my son to be part of a sport that is absent substance abuse and the partying lifestyle," he said.

Corinne says Blair is already offering a good example to other young skimboarders. She says other mothers are happy for their children to emulate Blair, who just graduated from Laguna Beach High School and will attend UC Berkeley.

"They like seeing the fact he's going to college. He got into Berkeley," Corinne said.

"Any sport grows through an appeal to the parents," Carey said. "They're the ones buying the equipment, taking them to tournaments."

Blair said he feels a certain responsibility to the sport, an idea enforced by the recognition he gets from strangers who have seen videos of him online. He must set an example for younger skimboarders as they enter the sport, just as his predecessors did for him, he said.

Related Links

Skimboarder Blair Conklin, 18, stands with his parents, Carey and Corinne, at their home in Laguna Beach. Conklin said he began skimming there when he was about 4. EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Skimboarder Blair Conklin sits on the rocks outside his home in Laguna Beach. He is the No. 2-ranked skimboarder in the world. EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Skimboarders look for their next wave at Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach. Laguna is considered the birthplace of modern skimming. EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Skimboarder Bryce Wagner, 19, launches off a wave at Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach. The beach is the site of this weekend's VIC skimboarding competition. EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A Laguna Beach lifeguard skims along the sand in this 1929 photograph, one of the first documented examples of skimboarding. GEORGE GRIFFETH, COURTESY OF SKIMONLINE.COM
Laguna Beach lifeguards skimmed along the surface of the sand on pieces of wood as early as the 1920s, as shown in this 1929 photo. GEORGE GRIFFETH, COURTESY OF SKIMONLINE.COM
Laguna Beach's Blair Conklin goes aerial. He'll be attending UC Berkeley starting in the fall but plans to skim during the summer. ANDRE MAGARAO, COURTESY OF UNITED SKIM TOUR
Blair Conklin, the No. 2-ranked skimboarder in the world, rips at Laguna Beach. ANDRE MAGARAO, COURTESY OF UNITED SKIM TOUR
Sam Stinnett of Laguna Beach, the No.1-ranked skimboarder in the world, carves a wave in Laguna. ANDRE MAGARAO, COURTESY OF UNITED SKIM TOUR
Laguna Beach's Sam Stinnett, the top-ranked skimboarder in the world, gets some air on a wave in Laguna Beach. COURTESY OF UNITED SKIM TOUR

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